Anti-corruption chief asks Bishop to support O'Neill investigation

Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker

The sacked anti-corruption chief seeking to arrest Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill over graft allegations has called on Australia to demand he respect and restore rule of law or risk losing Australian support.

In a high-stakes move, the former head of PNG's corruption taskforce, Sam Koim, has flown to Australia to meet Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Labor and the Greens to urge Australia to support moves for Mr O'Neill to be questioned over his suspected involvement in a fraud scandal and to reinstate the top officials Mr O'Neill sacked last week.

Mr Koim's trip puts the Australian government in a delicate situation, given it relies on PNG's support to run the Manus Island detention centre.

Mr Koim, PNG's attorney-general and deputy police commissioner were dismissed by Mr O'Neill last week after they moved to arrest and question him over fresh evidence that allegedly implicated him in a corruption scandal that had plunged PNG into crisis.

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"Because of the move to arrest Mr O'Neill to face the evidence we have gathered, he is striking back,'' Mr Koim said.

''Mr O'Neill is branding almost every institution that is involved in the law enforcement arena as compromised and that is a very dangerous and serious allegation by the Prime Minister of PNG.

''The time has come that Australia has to take a stand."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to be drawn on the turmoil in PNG, saying last week it was an internal matter.

But Mr Koim urged the federal government to consider suspending its large aid program in PNG or implementing other punitive measures. He also cautioned Australia against staying quiet to preserve PNG's co-operation with Australia over the Manus Island detention centre and refugee resettlement program.

The anti-corruption NGO Transparency International also called on Mr O'Neill to respect the rule of law in PNG and several of the group's Australian directors, including Griffith University professor AJ Brown, will accompany Mr Koim in Canberra as he meets Ms Bishop on Tuesday.

On the weekend, Mr O'Neill said he would ask the PNG police to investigate Mr Koim for his role in a "political plot" to bring him down.

But Mr Koim dismissed these allegations and said they had only arisen after his corruption taskforce had gathered fresh evidence implicating Mr O'Neill in an allegedly corrupt scheme run by top PNG lawyer Paul Paraka.

"Based on this evidence, we reached a firm belief that the Prime Minister has a case to answer,'' Mr Koim said. ''Mr O'Neill should submit to the same laws that everyone else is subjected to. He has allegations against him and he should make himself available to the authorities."

Mr Paraka had been charged over stealing tens of millions of dollars in PNG government funds using a letter of authority allegedly authored by Mr O'Neill. Much of the allegedly stolen money had been laundered through Australian banks in wire transfers.

A confidential letter from Mr Koim to police commissioner Toami Kulunga was revealed last week. It said Mr O'Neill's "denial of authoring and/or signing the directive letter [used by Mr Paraka to allegedly steal funds] … can no longer hold water".

The letter from Mr Koim said Mr O'Neill had allegedly engaged in ''misappropriation, conspiracy to defraud and official corruption''.

In response, Mr O'Neill denied any wrong doing and obtained a court order preventing his arrest.

Mr Koimasked Australian police to freeze all funds Mr Paraka had put into Australian bank accounts.